Man Hands - Book Review

By Sarina Bowen & Tanya Eby

Synopsis

He puts the “screw” in screwball comedy…

BRYNN
At thirty-four, I’m reeling from a divorce. I don’t want to party or try to move on. I just want to stay home and post a new recipe on my blog: Brynn’s Dips and Balls.
But my friends aren’t having it. Get out there again, they say. It will be fun, they say. I’m still taking a hard pass.
Free designer cocktails, they say. And that’s a game-changer.
Too bad my ex shows up with his new arm candy. That’s when I lose my mind. But when my besties dare me to leap on the first single man I see, they don’t expect me to actually go through with it.

TOM
All I need right now is some peace and quiet while my home renovation TV show is on hiatus. But when a curvy woman in a red wrap dress charges me like she’s a gymnast about to mount my high bar, all I can do is brace myself and catch her. What follows is the hottest experience of my adult life.
I want a repeat, but my flying Cinderella disappears immediately afterward. She doesn’t leave a glass slipper, either—just a pair of panties with chocolate bunnies printed on them.
But I will find her.

Review

In MAN HANDS, we have two people recovering from failed relationships. Tom is mostly in hiding after having his girlfriend reject his proposal…on live TV. The same woman who only used him to propel her own career. Brynn is recently divorced from a man who loved her cooking skills but was not attracted to her fuller figure, who made her feel so undesirable it greatly affected her confidence. Trying to regain some of that confidence, and with her best friends at her back, she literally jumps on the first man she sees at a party, which happens to be Tom.

I liked Tom and Brynn, and I thought they were perfect for each other. I liked that even though they had both been hurt, it didn’t stop them from trying a new relationship together. Their relationship gave both of them the confidence they needed to stand up to their exes when they popped in to cause trouble, and both scenes were magnificent. What I also liked about Brynn was that she listened to her heart, and didn’t make wrong assumptions about Tom’s feelings for her. And Tom? Well, he always knew the right things to say.

“Like my ex would even notice.”
“Of course he will. If I were married to you, and then I lost you, the regret would be pretty intense.”

MAN HANDS is labelled as a romantic-comedy, and I won’t deny that it was funny. For example, here’s the ending to their first time together, and I cracked up laughing.

He pulls out and collapses next to me. His leg is over mine, and he reaches across my naked breast to grab my hand. “I’m Tom,” he says.
“Brynn,” I breathe back.
“Well, Brynn…It’s really nice to meet you.”
We shake hands.

However, I did feel that some of the humor was a little too much, a little too forced, and a little too immature given we’re talking about two people who are 34 and 38 years old. Tom’s dick talks to him throughout the story—it even has its own mini chapter towards the end—and I can’t decide whether I thought that was funny or not. That being said, the story made me laugh, and isn’t that the point?

MAN HANDS is told in dual POVs and comes with a HEA for Tom and Brynn. While it’s part of a series, I think each book can be read as a stand-alone because each book will be about a different couple. The second book in the series, MAN CARD, comes out in January and I am looking forward to reading it. It will be about Tom’s best friend, Braht, and one of Brynn’s best friends, Ashley, who had an interesting and fiery “relationship” throughout this story. Will Brynn’s other best friend, Sadie, get her own story? I’m not sure, but given she seems to be in the middle of an unhappy marriage, anything is possible.